


maybe i'll tell you sometime

by starlight_sugar



Series: The General Specific [4]
Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter/Funhaus RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Professors, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-25
Updated: 2015-11-25
Packaged: 2018-05-03 08:56:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,559
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5284616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starlight_sugar/pseuds/starlight_sugar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jon groans. “I’ve had so much feelings talk this weekend. And it’s a Monday. You’re going to make me talk about feelings on Monday.”</p><p>(Or: Jon's weekend includes a fight, a date, and some ice cream. All told, he's probably had worse weekends.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	maybe i'll tell you sometime

**Author's Note:**

> Title comes from [I Go To The Barn Because I Like The](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSjWUcQD-1M) by Band of Horses.
> 
> Rooster Teeth does not have my permission to use any portion of my writing in your video content.

To: Miles (11:41 PM)  
Make sure you and Kerry get some sleep

From: Miles (11:42 PM)  
We will, don’t worry

To: Miles (11:42 PM)  
You guys still working?

From: Miles (11:44 PM)  
Yup, revision hell is still hell, but we’re getting through it

To: Miles (11:45 PM)  
All right, well, Kerry is actually in my apartment right now, so as soon as you feel like telling me the truth I’d love to hear it

.

“He’s not doing anything wrong,” Kerry insists. “He wouldn’t.”

“I was assuming he wouldn’t lie to me, either, and look where that got me.” Jon glances at his phone again. Still nothing in the last twenty minutes. “Did you tell him where you were going?”

“I told him I was going out. It was actually a total coincidence I ran into Chris.”

“Yeah, about that.” Jon turns to Chris, who immediately curls in on himself and his phone. “What the hell?”

“In my defense, I was just going out drinking in public because it seemed less sad than drinking alone. I wasn’t looking for anyone.” Chris glances at Kerry. “And then we just picked the same bar, he came back over here to talk, and he offered to be my rebound for-”

Jon holds up a hand. “I don’t need to hear about that part.”

“I thought I was being generous,” Kerry mutters.

Jon glares at him, and Kerry lifts his hands in a sign of peace. “Look, I’m just saying, you know how Miles gets about writing. He forgets to eat. I don’t. I can leave the house every now and again.”

“Then why was he saying you were with him?”

“I don’t know, he’s your boyfriend.”

“He’s not answering my texts.”

“You could call him,” Chris suggests.

Jon glares at him. “Why would I do that?”

“Because it’s harder to ignore.” Chris goes back to his phone, texting away. “He probably has his reasons for what he did.”

“Then he doesn’t want me to know them,” Jon points out. “He’s not more liable to answer a call than a text, and-” he glances at his phone- “he hasn’t answered a text.”

“Calls are harder to ignore,” Chris repeats stubbornly. “You should talk it out.”

Jon is almost frustrated enough to remind Chris that he’s not talking anything out with Aaron and Barbara, but he stops himself just in time. There are some things you can’t come back from, and he’s not about to find out if that’s one of them.

“You can still ignore a call,” Jon says, but he can feel the gears turning. If a call is harder to ignore than a text, then there has to be something harder to ignore than a call. It’s easy to ignore a phone ringing, but it’s a lot harder to ignore, say, a knock on the door.

He makes up his mind in an instant. “Kerry, he’s at his apartment, right?”

“Yeah, why?” Kerry pauses, a look of horror dawning on his face. “Oh, shit, Jon, don’t.”

Jon grabs his keys off the coffee table. “No, this conversation needs to happen now. I can’t let this stew or else I’m going to be even more pissed at him.”

“Wait, wait.” Kerry reaches for Jon’s arm, but stops short, looking worried. “Listen, you’re angry, and you have good reason to be. Just try not to fuck this up any more than necessary, okay? You guys have a good thing going, and nobody wants to see that go away.”

“Hear, hear,” Chris mutters. He’s still texting, but he pauses to look up at Jon, incredibly earnest. “Really, though, be careful. You want to repair this, not fuck it up. Remember that.”

They’re right. Jon’s mad at Miles, of course, especially if that means the twelve-day vacation was fake. He doesn’t appreciate being lied to. But this is his boyfriend. This is the first relationship he’s had in a while, and maybe the most important he’s had so far. It’s _Miles_. He’s not ready to lose that to anything that they could fix.

“I’ll do my best,” Jon says before he’s out the door.

.

Miles opens the door of his apartment before Jon has the chance to knock. He doesn’t say anything, just moves out of the way so Jon can come in, which Jon doesn’t know how to take.

“I’d ask how you knew I was coming, but I can guess,” Jon mutters as he walks in. He’d noticed the way Chris had been very, very careful about not letting Jon near his phone. Goddamn traitor.

Miles picks up a stack of papers from the coffee table and holds it out. Jon looks at it. “What is this?”

“The script,” Miles says, voice oddly vulnerable. “I want you to know that part was real. I’ve been working on fixing this for the last three days.”

“Could you have taken a break?”

“Probably.”

Jon lifts his eyebrows. “Probably?”

Miles sighs, shoulders slumping, and drops the script back on the table. “Look, I don’t know how to explain it, but it’s like - when I get an idea, I don’t know how to stop until it’s all outside of my head. I need to get everything done as fast as I possibly can so I can think about other things again. But sometimes, as fast as I can isn’t very fast, and I still feel like i have to keep going.” He snaps his fingers. “Like a road trip. You can either drive as fast as you can to get where you’re going as fast as possible, or you can take breaks along the way and stretch your legs, and taking breaks is better for you, but I’m just going ten miles above the speed limit the whole time.”

“You feel like you can’t get out of the car,” Jon guesses.

“Yeah,” Miles says, sounding impossibly relieved. “Yeah, that’s it exactly. And Kerry, he doesn’t get it, because he can get out of the car and take a break and take a night off if he wants to. I’m only just figuring out how to text people in the car. Not that I’d ever actually text and drive, but you know what-”

“Miles,” Jon interrupts. “You’re writing. I can get that. But why the fuck wouldn’t you just say that Kerry wasn’t with you?”

Miles pauses, mouth hanging open. “I,” he says slowly. “I don’t know. It never occurred to me. I guess I was worried about… this.”

“What about this?”

“That you’d see Kerry taking a break on his road trip and not get why I couldn’t stop driving.”

“You could’ve just told me this in the beginning,” Jon says exasperatedly. “Kerry explained it the same way you did. It’s okay if you need to keep going. I won’t feel neglected if that’s what it takes for you to get it done.”

Miles looks like he’s been hit by a train. “You… won’t?”

Jon almost laughs. “No! God, you think I don’t get too caught up in project-grading hell to remember to eat? I’m the same way, and none of this would matter if you’d just said that to begin with. Which is the part that I’m worried about now.”

“I’m sorry,” Miles says, and god, Jon can see how much he means it, too. It’s surreal to see Miles so still, so serious. It goes against everything Miles has been for the last two years. “I fucked up. I’ll own up to that. I get that it felt like I was lying to you, and I should know better than anyone that that’s a shitty thing to do to someone in a relationship. It won’t happen again.”

Jon stares. “What the fuck does that mean?”

“What does what mean?”

“You know better than anyone that lying is bad for a relationship?”

“It’s happened to me before.” Miles folds his arms, looking defensive.

Jon shakes his head. “You can’t just keep saying things like that. I don’t know what relationship you had that made you like this, but-”

“Like this?” Miles repeats. “Like what?”

“Like-” Jon has to take a minute to collect his thoughts. There has to be a way to say this without sounding accusatory. “Every time someone talks to me, you tell them to back off. Like that waitress the other night, you did everything you could to scare her away, even though there was no chance of anything happening. And now you’re talking about getting lied to. I don’t know what happened that made you think that’s a normal part of a relationship, but it’s not. And I’m not going to lie to you.”

“Okay, you say that now, but-”

Jon throws his arms in the air. “I’m not! What part of that is so goddamn hard to believe?”

“It’s not you, it’s me,” Miles says, and blanches immediately. “Oh, god, that’s a breakup line, I don’t mean it like that, that’s not what I’m trying to do. It’s- I’m- the-” He drags his hands through his hair and groans, spinning in a circle on his heel. Jon waits, and finally Miles turns back around looks Jon steadily in the eye. “Here’s the thing. The last four relationships I’ve been in ended with someone cheating on me.”

It takes a minute to absorb that. Jon remembers Miles talking about an old girlfriend cheating on him, sometime before he knew Jon. Kerry had embellished the story by swearing colorfully and often. It’d been ugly. Cheating is always ugly. But four relationships ending that way? He can’t imagine it. “Okay,” he says at last. “Keep going.”

“And my sense of what normal is in a relationship is pretty fucked because that’s a really shitty track record.”

“So you’re expecting it again.”

“No.” Miles sighs. “Maybe? I don’t think you would actually cheat on me, if that’s what you’re asking. I just don’t know how to be in a relationship where I’m not expecting someone to get tired of me.”

There is, Jon thinks, a strange kind of logic there. It’s not personal, it’s a pattern. It’s a coping mechanism, and one that puts a lot into perspective. But it makes the whole situation even more ridiculous: Miles, in an attempt to keep Jon from lying, lied to him. It’s logic, sure, but it’s terribly backwards logic, and Jon has the right to be unhappy about it.

“Jon?” Miles says, and he sounds scared. When Jon focuses on his face, he looks scared, too. He looks like someone who’s ready to get bad news.

Jon takes a deep breath. “Okay. Here’s what’s going to happen.”

Miles nods eagerly, leaning forward, and it makes him pause. _I could break this man’s heart,_ he thinks, and the reality of it almost bowls him over. He could say anything in the world and Miles would let him, and that’s so colossally unfair that it takes a second for him to catch his breath and say his piece.

“I need a little time to work through this.” Miles’s face falls, but Jon keeps going. “Not forever, I promise, and you have my permission to bug Chris to bug me about this if it takes too long. This is all just a little more than I expected, and I need to figure out what I think. All right?”

“All right,” Miles says, barely above a whisper.

“This isn’t goodbye,” Jon adds, and Miles lets out a breath in relief. “This isn’t a no, this isn’t a break, this isn’t any of that shit. I don’t want that. I just need to get my head screwed on straight, and we can have this conversation when we’ve both had more time to think about what we want to say.”

“Yeah,” Miles says, and he swallows. “Yeah, okay. And you’ll call me?”

“I’ll call you,” Jon promises. “C’mere.”

Miles takes a step forward, haltingly, and Jon reaches up and drags his head down to kiss his forehead. “We’re gonna be okay,” he murmurs, and Miles makes a sad noise that Jon never wants to hear again. “Thank you for giving me time.”

“Don’t take too much time,” Miles says, but he gives Jon a startlingly genuine smile when he pulls away. “I just have one question.”

“Yeah?”

“Chris and Kerry? Really?”

Jon can’t help the startled laugh that bursts out of him. “I know, I never would’ve guessed it.”

“Life brings people together in strange ways,” Miles says musingly. “Drive safe, all right?”

“Yeah, yeah.” Jon gives Miles one last smile before going to the door. He doesn’t let himself look back, mostly because he thinks he’d never leave if he did.

.

From: Chris (12:48 AM)  
how’d it go??

To: Chris (12:51 AM)  
I’m not sure, actually.

From: Chris (12:56 AM)  
kerry went home for the night so we can have a movie night if you want

From: Chris (12:56 AM)  
i owe you one anyways

To: Chris (12:58 AM)  
That doesn’t sound half bad actually

To: Chris (12:58 AM)  
Tell Kerry sorry if I scared him off

From: Chris (1:00 AM)  
quit texting while you’re driving, asshole

From: Chris (1:01 AM)  
and he’s not scared off, he’s taking me out for dinner tomorrow

From: Chris (1:04 AM)  
so HA

.

To: Barb (2:58 AM)  
I’m invoking ice cream time tomorrow

To: Barb (3:19 AM)  
Or right now

To: Barb (3:20 AM)  
Whenever you get these, really

To: Barb (4:58 AM)  
I don’t know if you can tell, but I’m not really sleeping great

To: Barb (5:40 AM)  
Everything’s a little bit fucked

To: Barb (8:11 AM)  
Just text me when you can so we can go out

From: Barb (9:34 AM)  
Jeeeesus Christ, Risinger

From: Barb (9:35 AM)  
Be outside in ten minutes so I can pick you up

.

Ice cream time stems from a years-old realization that Jon and Barbara have all the same favorite ice cream flavors. At first it was a joke - “had a bad day, ice cream time!” - but it evolved, as these things do. Now, it’s a codeword for “I need to get the hell away from my problems for a little bit.” It’s a way to get away from fights with coworkers or stress from the world. There are only two rules to ice cream time: you have to say what’s wrong, and if you call for the time, you pay for the ice cream.

Barbara drives them to the usual ice cream place. Jon orders for them both and pays without complaint. The entire time, she says nothing, just watches his terse smiles and gives him increasingly sympathetic looks.

As soon as both she and Jon are settled down with sundaes, Barb props her elbows on the counter. “All right, what happened?”

And Jon tells her. He tells her about the twelve days of boyfriend-less-ness, and the pseudo-fight, and everything except Kerry and Chris’s rebound sex. There’s really no good way to tell someone that a mutual friend is rebounding from a breakup that never happened, especially not when that someone technically caused said breakup. He can gloss over that for her sake.

Barbara, bless her goddamn soul, listens till Jon is finished. She leans back in her chair. “Okay, that’s the situation, so describe the problem.”

“The problem?”

“It sounds to me like you’re mad because he lied, and he apologized for it. And it sounds like you might’ve jumped to a conclusion or two along the way, right?”

“No,” Jon says, although that’s only half true. He’d been careful not to imagine what Miles was doing while he was lying, but he’d been worried all the same. Just because he hadn’t specifically thought any bad things doesn’t mean they hadn’t drifted through his mind.

Barbara lets that go. “Either way, you’re on the same page now. He knows what you expect from him, and by extension he knows what to expect from you.”

“But what if it happens again?”

“Do you think it’s going to happen again?”

“I didn’t think it’d happen the first time!”

She snorts. “You didn’t think you were ever going to get into an argument?”

Jon frowns. “I don’t think you’re understanding this situation.”

“No, I think you’re blowing it out of proportion in your own head. You’ve got it mostly resolved already, right? All you need to do is talk about it again and make sure that everyone’s in agreement.” Barb shrugs. “Set some ground rules for communication. Institute required in-person check-ins every few days, class visits or date night or something. Text more. Talk about these things when they come up so this doesn’t happen again.”

Jon can feel his jaw drop. Barbara gives him an unnecessarily smug look and takes a bite of her sundae.

“You,” Jon says at last, “are a lifesaver. You are the common sense I should’ve been born with. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“You’d ask Chris for help.” She makes a face. “And he’s not great with romance, so you’d be shit out of luck there.”

“Eh.” Jon shrugs. “He landed a date tonight, so he’s not totally helpless. But really, thank you.”

Barb blinks, looking like she’s been hit over the head. “Wait. Chris has a date?”

Fuck. Maybe that wasn’t the best thing to mention.

“Yeah,” he says, forcing himself to be casual. “Kerry asked him out. I don’t know all the ins and outs, but they’re doing something. It’s probably not going to be a big thing, right?”

“Probably not,” Barb echoes faintly.

Jon frowns. “You good, Babs?” There’s no way she could be unhappy with Chris for dating someone. Absolutely no way.

Barbara shakes herself back to reality. “Yeah, it’s nothing. Are _you_ good?”

“You know something?” Jon scoops up a spoonful of ice cream. “I think I am.”

.

To: Miles (11:17 AM)  
I’m ready for that talk, if you are

From: Miles (11:18 AM)  
shit that was faster than i expected

From: Miles (11:18 AM)  
I could come over tonight?

To: Miles (11:20 AM)  
Yeah, sounds good. Chris and Kerry are leaving around 6 so come then?

To: Miles (11:20 AM)  
I’ll order takeout.

From: Miles (11:21 AM)  
you’re planning on me staying long enough to eat? that sounds like a good sign

To: Miles (11:22 PM)  
Get here at six and find out what the plan is

From: Miles (1:22 PM)  
sir yes sir!

.

Miles knocks on the door within sixty seconds of Chris leaving. Jon can’t be entirely sure that’s a coincidence, but he’s not about to question it.

Jon opens the door and leans against the doorframe, watching Miles flutter his hand against his thigh. “Do you want the short version or the long version first?”

“Is the long version a drawn-out emotional conversation?”

“That’s happening either way, you know.”

“Yeah, I just want to know what I’m in for tonight.” Miles looks at him seriously. “I’ll take the short version first.”

Jon doesn’t hesitate before leaning up to kiss Miles as gently as he can. One of Miles’s hands comes up to rest on Jon’s cheek, and Jon winds his arms around Miles’s neck, and it’s about as perfect as perfect gets.

Miles pulls back, just slightly. “Okay, so just so we’re clear, that means we’re good, right?”

“That means that we still need to talk about this as soon as the Chinese food I ordered gets here.” Jon offers a crooked smile. “But it means I want that answer to be yes.”

“Oh, thank baby Jesus,” Miles gasps. He kisses Jon’s forehead, then one cheek, then the other. “I mean, obviously, I would’ve been fine with whatever you decided was best, because I respect your decisions, but this is the best decision.”

“Yeah, I thought so too.” Jon loops a hand around Miles’s wrist. “Come on, we’ve got a lot to talk about.”

.

From: Chris (8:21 PM)  
are you and miles making out on the couch

From: Chris (8:21 PM)  
or is it safe to come in

To: Chris (8:22 PM)  
It’s safe

To: Chris (8:23 PM)  
I mean, we’re wrapping up our long emotional talk, but it’s safe

From: Chris (8:27 PM)  
that sounds like anything but safe

To: Chris (8:34 PM)  
you can come in now, the scary feelings can’t hurt you anymore

From: Chris (8:34 PM)  
fuck you

.

RELATIONSHIP RULES

  1. We’ll have two formal date nights per month

  2. We’ll see each other in person at least twice a week

  3. We’ll tell each other when something is wrong

  4. Miles will not pay for lunch every single time

  5. Jon will eat lunch, goddammit, remember meals

  6. Communication is important (to be expanded on as we communicate more)

  7. We reserve the right to call each other’s bullshit

  8. Rules can be added, removed, or amended only after mutual discussion




We will obey these rules under penalty of relentless teasing and paying for lunch for a week if we fail, so help us God.

(“This isn’t a binding legal contract,” Chris says, scrolling through the note on Jon’s phone. “You guys know that, right?”

Miles glances at Jon. “We should get this shit notarized.”

“Chris, you’re our witness,” Jon decides. “Witness this. We’re going to obey these rules.”

“I hate you both,” Chris says cheerfully, and hands Jon’s phone back.)

.

To: Barb (8:35 PM)  
All is well in the land of Jon and Miles, in case you were wondering

From: Barb (8:37 PM)  
You talked?

To: Barb (8:38 PM)  
We had a great conversation and we’re good now. Having date night next weekend. It’s gonna be awesome.

To: Barb (8:39 PM)  
ohmygod hiiiiiii barbara tell aaron i owe him a fruit basket!!!

To: Barb (8:39 PM)  
(that was from miles. and so is this!)

From: Barb (8:41 PM)  
Hi, Miles! :D Glad you two are good.

From: Barb (8:57 PM)  
How was Chris’s date?

To: Barb (8:58 PM)  
Don’t you think that’s a question for Chris?

From: Barb (9:00 PM)  
He doesn’t know that I know that he went on a date

To: Barb (9:03 PM)  
Tell him I told you???

From: Barb (9:10 PM)  
It’s not that important. Congrats on doing feelings right.

.

“Yo, Risemonger,” someone says from the door.

Jon, who has learned from the last office hours incident that sometimes people will want to talk to him and he shouldn’t jump when it happens, does not jump. He forgets to close Reddit before he turns, but he doesn’t jump.

Kerry plops into one of the chairs in Jon’s office. “I’d ask if you have a minute, but I’m pretty sure the Reddit page says you do. You ready for more feelings talk?”

Jon groans. “I’ve had so much feelings talk this weekend. And it’s a Monday. You’re going to make me talk about feelings on Monday.”

“Fuck you, one of us had to deal with heartbroken Miles on Saturday while they were trying to get ready for a date, and it wasn’t you.”

“Yeah, whatever,” Jon mutters. He doesn’t like the thought of being the cause of heartbroken Miles, but he’ll live with it. “All right, Kerry, tell me about your feelings.”

Kerry grimaces. “It’s about Chris.”

“What about Chris?”

“What does he think of me?”

It takes everything within Jon to avoid actually banging his head against his desk. “Why is everyone asking me what Chris thinks?”

“Because you live wtih him?” Kerry rolls his eyes. “I’m not asking for dirt or anything, I’m asking because I want to know if it’s worth trying to ask him out again.”

That gives Jon pause. “Would you do it?”

Kerry shrugs. “Maybe. It depends on whether or not he would say yes because he likes me or because he wants a rebound.”

“But you offered to be his rebound.”

“I didn’t mean the date as part of a rebound.”

“Did Chris know that?”

“I’m not sure, which is why I’m here.” Kerry sighs. “Listen, I don’t want a serious relationship right now. I just want casual dates. But I don’t want casual rebound dates. Does that make sense?”

“Yeah, sure.”

“So what does Chris think this is?”

Jon snorts. “He thinks you’re pity-dating him.”

Kerry buries his face in his hands. “Shit.”

Sadly enough, it’s completely true. After Miles had left on Saturday night, Chris said that the date was the best pity-date he’d ever been on. Nothing Jon had said could make him believe it was anything other than pity.

“Tell him it’s not a pity date,” Jon suggests. “Talk to him. If I learned anything this weekend, it’s that communicating about this shit makes your life so much easier.”

“I know, I know.” Kerry heaves a sigh. “What day is your date night?”

“Sunday. Why?”

“I’ll take Chris out on Friday, so that way when things inevitably go horribly wrong I can crash with Miles on Saturday without fucking up date night.”

Jon raises his eyebrows. “That’s not very optimistic of you.”

“Meh.” Kerry shrugs. “It’s better to have a plan. If things go well, I have a day to celebrate.”

“That’s more like it. Good luck.”

“Thanks, man.” Kerry pushes himself to his feet. “And thanks for not fucking with Miles. Seriously.”

“I wouldn’t,” Jon answers, hoping Kerry can tell how much he means it. Kerry and Miles have something that Jon can never get in the way of, and he respects that. If anything, it’s good to know that Miles has someone else who cares so much.

Kerry smiles lopsidedly. “I know. Have a good day.”

“Yeah, you too.” Jon turns back to his computer, but he watches Kerry leave from the corner of his eye. He hopes, for Kerry’s sake, that Chris will hear him out.

.

From: Jordan (6:20 PM)  
hey, jon

From: Jordan (6:21 PM)  
go on a double date with me

To: Jordan (6:24 PM)  
Jordan, if you make me go to a sports bar again, I am disowning you

From: Jordan (6:25 PM)  
what if miles wants to go to a sports bar

To: Jordan (6:27 PM)  
Have you MET him

From: Jordan (6:30 PM)  
FINE then come to a movie with me and brandon

From: Jordan (6:31 PM)  
pleeeeeease it doesn’t even have to be soon

To: Jordan (6:34 PM)  
I’ll have to check with M but he should be good for it

From: Jordan (6:35 PM)  
:D

From: Jordan (6:37 PM)  
miles can pick the movie if he wants

From: Jordan (6:43 PM)  
and thanks jon you’re the best

.

To: Miles (6:47 PM)  
Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to pick a movie you want to see b/c Jordan wants us to double-date with him and his boy toy

From: Miles (6:50 PM)  
oh HELL yes let’s do it

From: Miles (6:51 PM)  
look at us, planning dates outside of date night

To: Miles (6:52 PM)  
That’s what normally happens when you date someone, Miles

From: Miles (6:54 PM)  
especially when you date the best person literally ever

From: Miles (6:54 PM)  
<3 <3 <3

To: Miles (6:58 PM)  
sap. <3

**Author's Note:**

> As per usual, I exist on other forms of social media, so say hi on [Tumblr](http://officialseancassidy.tumblr.com) or [Twitter](http://twitter.com/ofclseancassidy) if you want.


End file.
